4a. Eliphaz had asked Job similar
ironic questions, 15:7–8, as had Elihu in 37:18.
4b. Literally “Tell, if you know
understanding.” The Qumran Targum reads ḥkmh,
“wisdom,” for MT bînāh,
“understanding.” Dahood (Psalms III,
Note ad loc.), on the basis of the personification of Wisdom and Understanding
in Prov 8, personified tĕbûnāh in Ps
136:5 and bînāh in the present
instance rendered, “Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell if you are
acquainted with Understanding.” The questions, according to Dahood, imply that
Understanding was present with God when the earth was created.
5a. Surely. Here, as noted by Dahood (Psalms III, second Note on Ps 128:2), the emphatic kî with postposition of the verb is
employed as in Ugaritic. The Qumran Targum reads hn, “if,” for MT ky: hn tndʿ, “if you know.” The text is
perfectly preserved here and the translation is quite precise:
mn šm mšḥth hn tndʿ
mn ngd ʿlyh ḥwṭʾ
Who set its measure(s), if you
know?
Who stretched over it the line?
6a. Cf. 26:7; Ps 24:2.
4–6. The earth was conceived as a
building set on foundations, 4a (cf. Pss 24:2, 89:12, 102:26, 104:5; Prov 3:19;
Isa 48:13, 51:13, 16; Zech 12:1), built according to plans and specifications,
5a (cf. Ezek 40:3–43:17; Zech 1:16), with use of the measuring line, 5b (cf.
Isa 34:11; Jer 31:39), with its pillars set in sockets.
6b. Cf. Isa 28:16; Jer 51:26; Ps 118:22. The cornerstone may refer
either to a foundation stone or the capstone.
7. The laying of the foundation,
Ezra 3:10–11, or the capstone of a building, Zech 4:7, was an occasion for
rejoicing and music. The song of the morning stars is not merely a poetic
figure. The stars were mighty gods in the pagan cults (cf. 2 Kings 17:16, 21:3;
Deut 4:19), but were relegated to subservience in the celestial army of Yahweh
(cf. Isa 40:26). The ancient pagan conception of the king of the gods enthroned
with his court ranged around him, as in the Ugaritic myths, is reflected in 1
Kings 22:19. The celestial army also functioned as a choir to hymn the praises
of the king, Pss 19:2, 29:2, 148:2–3. The morning stars certainly include the
planet Venus, the brilliant morning and evening “star”; cf. Isa 14:12; 2 Pet
1:19. The Ugaritic poem “The Birth of the Beautiful and Gracious Gods”
celebrates the birth of the astral deities Dawn and Dusk, perhaps the Venus
star regarded, as among the Romans, as the morning star (Lucifer) and the
evening star (Hesperus).
This famous verse is almost
completely preserved in the Qumran Targum which reads:
bmzhr kḥdʾ kwkby ṣpr
wyzʿq[w]n kḥdʾ kl mlʾky ʾlhʾ
When the morning stars shone
together,
And all the angels of God shouted
together.
The editors of the Qumran Targum
suggest that the change of the verb rnn,
“sing, jubilate,” to zhr, “shine,”
was motivated by the desire to avoid saying that the stars, inanimate beings
created by God but worshiped by the pagans, “jubilate.” (LXX and Syr.
apparently read brʾ, “create,” for MT
brn, “when sang.”) For a similar
reason, MT’s “sons of God” was changed to “angels of God.”
7b. gods. Cf. Note on 1:6.
8a. Who shut. Vulg. quis
conclusit, LXX ephraxa de, “and I
shut,” reflects a reading wʾsk.
Blommerde read wayyussaḵ (from nsk, “pour”) for MT wayyāseḵ and translated: “When the sea poured out of the two doors,
when it went forth, erupting from the womb.” The reference of 8a, however, is
to the containment of the sea, while 8b gives the temporal setting. Driver-Gray
proposed to read instead of MT bdltym,
“with (two) doors,” bĕhulledeṯ yām,
“when the sea was born,” and remarked that “it is less easy to recover the
beginning of the line, which should contain a question.”
The Qumran Targum reads htswg bdšyn ymʾ, with the interrogative
particle before the second person verbal form, “Did you shut the Sea within
doors?”
8–11. Cf. 7:12, 9:13, 26:12. In
the Mesopotamian Creation Epic, Marduk, after slaying the sea dragon Tiamat,
created therefrom the primeval seas and placed a bar and guard to keep back the
waters (cf. ANET, p. 67, lines 139–40). In the Ugaritic myth relating Baal’s
defeat of the sea-god Yamm we cannot tell what the victorious Baal did to his
fallen opponent for the text breaks off, but there is mention of making him
captive (cf. ANET, p. 131, line 30). The present allusion presents an otherwise
unknown motif, the birth of the sea-god and the use of swaddling bands to
restrain the violent infant. In the Ugaritic Text BH (75 i 18–19) there is
mention of swaddling-bands in the birth of the bovine monsters called Eaters
and Devourers; cf. 40:15a.
The Qumran Targum preserves most
of vss. 8–11:
(8) htswg bdšyn ymʾ
b[hn]gḥwth mn rḥm thwmʾ lmpq
(9) bšwyt ʿnnyn [lbw]šh
wʿrplyn ḥwtlwhy
(10) wtšwh lh tḥwmyn wdt
[…]yn w[ ]
(11) wʾmrt ʿd tnʾ wlʾ twsp
[ g]ll[yk]
Did you shut the Sea within
doors?
When it gushed from the womb of
the deep, to come out
When I made the clouds its
garment
The dark clouds its
swaddling-bands
Did you set him a limit and a
law?
And I said, “Up to here and you
will not exceed
… [your wa]ves.”
The womb from which the Sea
emerged is here identified as the cosmic abyss.
10a. put. Various emendations have been offered for the verb ʾešbōr. Dhorme transposed the two verbs,
“I shattered” and “I imposed.” F. Perles (Analekten) postulated the
meaning “trace, mark out” for šbr and
similarly Gaster (Thespis, p. 456),
connecting it with Ar. sbr,
“prescribe boundaries.” Guillaume related the word to Ar. šabara, “spanned,” and averred that “The view that Hebrew Shin must
equal Arabic Sin and vice versa is
antiquated and untenable.” The Qumran Targum reads wtšwh lh tḥwmyn wdt[ ], “and you set for it bounds and law [ ].” It
is not clear from this rendering exactly what the original wording was, but it
is possible that šwy tḥwmyn, “set
bounds,” translates the verb šbr in
the sense postulated by Perles and Gaster. Unfortunately, the verb of the
second colon is not preserved in the Qumran Targum.
bounds. Dahood (Psalms I,
second Note on Ps 16:6) construed the suffix of ḥuqqî as third singular and rendered thus: “And I traced out its
limits, and set bars and two doors.”
11b. halt. The versions, as Dhorme remarked, have been embarrassed by yšyt bgʾwn. LXX apparently took bgʾwn as b-gw-k, “in your midst,” and rendered, “but your waves will be
confined within you.” Vulg., et hic
confringes tumentes fluctus tuos, may reflect the verb šbr. Targ. reads tšwy,
“you will put,” and Syr. tktr, “you
will remain.” The Qumran Targum does not preserve the verb of this hemistich.
Blommerde proposed to read yišatab
for MT yāšîṯ b- and construed the
verb thus concocted as an infixed -t-
form of a root šbb, Ugar. ṯbb which he would find in 1 Aqht 108,
123 (yṯb) and in Gen 49:24 (wtšb); Hos 8:6 (šbbym); Lam 1:7d (mšbth);
Ps 89:45 (hšbt), meaning “to break.”
The existence of such a root in Ugaritic or Hebrew is doubtful. Arabic has a
root ṯbb, “sit firm, be completed,”
but that meaning is unsuitable here. Overlooked by Blommerde is the interesting
fact that in the myth of Baal’s defeat of Prince Sea, at the very point that
the coup de grâce is administered, one of the verbs is identical in consonantism
to the problematic verb of the present verse (68:27): yqṯ bʿl wyšt ym, “Baal cut down and—Sea,” ykly ṯpṭ nhr, “He annihilated Chief River.” There are several
possible etymologies for the Ugaritic wyšt,
e.g. štt and šty which in Arabic mean “scatter, disperse,” and šty, “drink.” Whatever the meaning of wyšt in the Ugaritic passage cited, it
should be taken as a warning against emendation of the MT yš(y)t in the present line. (Marvin H. Pope, Job: Introduction, Translation, and Notes
[AYB 15; New Haven Yale University Press, 2008), 291-94)
